LOWER LAKE — By this time next year, hopefully with the COVID-19 pandemic all but a memory by then, Lower Lake High School will be home to Lake County’s first all-weather track, which would make the facility eligible to host a wide array of events currently not possible.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Lower Lake track and field co-head coach Mike Huffman said after the Trojans hosted a five-team Coastal Mountain Conference meet on its dirt track at Gordon Sadler Field.
St. Helena High School is the only CMC school that boasts an all-weather track at present. All five Lake County high schools have the traditional dirt surfaces, which makes their use susceptible to weather conditions and also results in much slower times in the running events.
“We’ll be able to host some invitationals and (conference) championships,” Huffman said. “And we’ll have a pole vault pit, so we’ll be able to do that event.”
Lower Lake hosted Clear Lake, Upper Lake, Mendocino and Willits on Wednesday, the second straight week the Trojans’ young coaching staff has taken on the monumental task of running a meet, but Huffman it’s good experience.
“We’re still learning, but things ran smoothly,” he said.
While track participation is down this season largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a handful of athletes from the five competing schools pushed themselves in the 80-plus-degree heat.
“It was hot, but we had popups all over the field,” Huffman said.
Boys
In the day’s most exciting event, Donavan Fernandez of Upper Lake and Gavin Hahn of Mendocino finished in a flat-footed tie in the 3,200-meter run, hitting the line in 12 minutes, 8.31 seconds.
“It went right to the wire,” Huffman said. “Fernandez made a late move to catch up.”
Jose Hernandez of Lower Lake came in third in 12:44.97 and Hector Alanes of Mendocino was fourth in 13:50.31.
Angelo Pelcastre of Lower Lake won the 1,600 in 5:04.2, finishing ahead of Lower Lake’s Leo Brown (5:19.5), Mendocino’s Hahn (5:21.2), Lower Lake’s Hernandez (5:39.2) and Mendocino’s Jack Graves (5:50).
Pelcastre added another first in the 800, winning in 2:18. Teammate Brown came in second (2:27), Upper Lake’s Fernandez was third in 2:28, and Lower Lake’s Hernandez was fourth in 2:46.
In other running events, Lower Lake’s Anthony Hills won the 200 (27.11) and 400 (56.51). In the 200, it was Hills edging out Upper Lake’s Erick Espinoza (27.2), Lower Lake’s John Sabela (27.3) and Clear Lake’s Tyler Haskell (27.5). In the 400, Daniel LaCount of Willits (1:03.9) came in second behind Hills, Joseph Neuharth of Lower Lake finished third in 1:10.8, and Lower Lake’s Leslie Johnson was fourth in 1:21.1.
Upper Lake’s Espinoza won the 100 in 12.2, beating out Lower Lake’s Sabela (12.58), Clear Lake’s Haskell (12.65) and Lower Lake’s Hills (12.81).
The 4×400 relay went to the Lower Lake “A” team of Hils, Pelcastre, Sabela and Brown in 3:59.78. The Lower Lake “B” team of Johnson, Neuharth, Mitchell Noble and Adam Viramontes came in second in 4:49.18.
In the field events, Elijah Cook of Lower lke won the shotput in 37-7 with Viramontes (30-6) second, Willits’ Zeke Novo third (29-4), and Lower Lake’s Fernando Aguilar (28-8) and Joseph Bickham (26-5) taking fourth and fifth, respectively.
Lower Lake’s Noble won the long jump in 15-9, beating out teammate Thomas Jones (15-0). Other top finishers were Mendocino’s Hahn (14-6 ½), Lower Lake’s Baiaku Redhawk (14-2) and Upper Lake’s Espinoza (13-6 ½).
Nobel also won the triple jump in 35-2 ½.
Girls
Double-event winners for the girls were Clear Lake’s Hannah Garrity in the 1,600 (5:39.5) and 3,200 (12:33.44), Lower Lake’s Katelyn Ferrell in the discus (57-1) and shotput (23-8), and Lower Lake’s Gabby Pelcastre in the 100 (16.14) and 200 (35.68).
Ferrell tied Willits’ Olivia Smith (57-1) for top honors in the discus while Smith was second behind Ferrell in the shotput (21-5).
In other events, Molly Collins of Lower Lake won the 800 (3:45) and Willits’ Serena Smith was first in the long jump (10-1/2).
Schedule
Lower Lake hits the road next Wednesday for a five-team meet at Cloverdale. St. Helena, Technology and Calistoga are also participating.
In other action next week, Clear Lake, Middletown and Willits visit Kelseyville while Upper Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma Academy head to Fort Bragg.
